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Pray-as-you-go, is daily prayer for your MP3 player. It’s beautiful. It’s from Jesuit Media Initiatives in Britain. Peace.

There was a richness in the readings at Mass today that I find difficult not to comment on. From the first reading, Genesis 9:8-15. God says to Noah that never again shall he destroy the earth with a flood. His covenant is with Noah and his descendants. That’s us. We’re all descended from Noah it would seem if you’re a person of the book. In the second reading taken from St. Peter 3:18-22, “Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.” Today’s Gospel taken from St. Mark,1:12-15″ “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The Gospel is about the Incarnation, the word made flesh who came and dwelt among us. In fact Christ is still dwelling among us. Lent is a time of renewal, a time of redemptive renewal. Lent is a time to get rid of our selfish ideas and renew our covenant relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters. Lent is about living the truth of the Gospel. When I got the ashes on my head Wednesday morning the priest said, “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” As a Franciscan the Gospel is about living in covenant relationship with all creation.

Peace.

Yesterday I attended Mass. The first reading was from Isaiah. I love Isaiah. The reading was from Isaiah 58:1-9. It really resonated with me and that reading is one of my favorites in the entire Bible. It really hits the nail on the head with regard to fasting. It’s Lent and many people are giving up food or something they enjoy. What is the point in all this? There is often a disconnect or at least there was for me over the fasting. A number of years ago I was involved with a young man who really took fasting seriously. This guy actually did a juice fast of over forty days. He was a spiritual seeker. He was really looking for God’s will. For me fasting is about getting closer to God’s will. A friend of mine says that he is giving up “bunjee jumping” for Lent. I love his wit and it resonates because so often there is a disconnect between fasting and what results.

The part of Isaiah that really grabs me is, “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.”

In the Secular Franciscan Rule, we are asked to “seek to encounter the living and active person of Christ in their brothers and sisters, in Sacred Scripture, in the Church, and in liturgical activity”. Following Isaiah is an encounter with the active person of Christ in Sacred Scripture. What drives me as Franciscan is attempting to follow this Christ that I encounter in Sacred Scripture. Peace.

Today I called my daughter who is a college freshman to congratulate her on a report of exceptional grades. She had just “aced” her midterm in history. While we were on the phone she told me that she had been thinking of me as she participated in a religion class she is taking. Curious about that statement I inquired a little more. It turns out that she is studying eastern religions and presently studying Buddhism. I told her that I did like what I had read of Zen Buddhism in particular. We both agreed that Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion in the strictest sense, but that Buddhism emphasized an inter-connectedness of all creation. That sounds somewhat like St. Francis and in some ways there are parallels.

While at Mt. Saviour Monastery last week I skimmed through several of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books which were on sale in the Monastery gift shop. I first read Nhat Hanh’s work about ten years ago when I picked up his book, “Living Buddha, Living Christ.” Several years later while working with a Franciscan friend at Mt. Irenaeus I learned that one of the priests there had been on retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. If you haven’t read any of Thich Nhat Hanh’s works, I encourage you to do so. You will discover a very holy man whose life long mission is about peace.

The eleventh,twelfth and thirteenth principles of Interbeing which were developed by Thich Nhat Hanh state:

“Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.”

“Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.”

“Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.”

There are fourteen principles that make up the “Principles of Interbeing” these three in particular remind me of the Prayer of St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Peace be with you.

I was reading the news tonight and it appears that President Bush will be laying a wreath at the Gandhi memorial in India. It’s ironic that the apostle of pre-emptive war is laying a wreath at the memorial to a man who symbolized non-violence. I was one of the many people who wrote tirelessly to our President in the days leading up to March 2003 and our invasion of Iraq. In many of those letters I appealed to our President’s love of Jesus and reminding him of the Sermon on the Mount and his command to “love one another as I have loved you.”

In April or May of 2003 I received a letter from the Whitehouse stating as I remember that the President appreciated hearing from me but that he knew best, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction etc. You’ve heard the litany ad nauseam by now. Mr. Bush said a pre-emptive war was justified. Those of us who counseled against such action were labeled by many of our country men as weak willed and un-patriotic. Now as Iraq spins closer and closer to civil war and over 2200 Americans are dead, 16,000 more grievously wounded, and probably 200,000 Iraqis dead, the wisdom of non-violent solutions is looking a little more realistic.

The opponents of non-violence always state that you can’t use non-violence against tyrants like Hitler and Saddam and therefore force is required. I guess these folks haven’t read about the spread of Christianity in the last 2000 years. There are regrettable cases of zealous missionaries who subjected native peoples to horrible crimes, but on balance the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been spread by people who were divinely inspired to turn the other cheek. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both proved that Gospel non-violence can topple empires. Gandhi brought down the British control of India. King faced down terrorists in our country who were hell bent on his destruction and the subjugation of America’s black population.

Most of the opponents of non-violence have never really tried it. It doesn’t take much intellect to determine that if you throw a rock at someone there is a good chance that the rock will come back at you. There is also an excellent chance that if you return good for bad that your enemy will be converted and that the strife will end. I hope that when the President visits India and lays a wreath at the Gandhi memorial that his heart will be changed.

Peace.

Ash Wednesday will be upon us in just a few short days and the subject that many will ask is, “What are you giving up for Lent?”
In past years I’ve told people that I was giving up “giving up” things. Afterall what is purpose of all of this fasting. Is my fasting redemptive or helping me to grow spiritually or is another way to affirm the status quo. Last year I was in the middle of a “news fast” that eventually lasted for over a year. I actually abstained from watching or reading the news. Imagine going without CNN, Fox, MSNBC or even Google News for a year. It was quite rewarding actually and provided a lot of time for reflection. Lent was about a week old last year when I decided that I would say the Rosary each day for the duration.

I’m not a big Rosary prayer and so I thought that perhaps the discipline of doing something I really didn’t want to do would be good for me. I can’t tell if any souls were saved, but I can say that I did spend time each day walking near our home and praying the Rosary. I actually went out and purchased a couple of rosaries to accomplish this.

Some non-Catholics are put off by Mary. I’m troubled at times that some Catholics seem to put more emphasis on Mary and the Rosary than on some of the other aspects of Christian spirituality. One thing that has come to me in the six years since I came home is that Mary provides most Catholics with a way to express the feminine aspects of creation. I think that most of the other Christian churches tend to be exclusively male oriented with little or no real regard for women. Marian devotions give us an opportunity to embrace the feminine in our midst and come to terms with it in ourselves. Our western culture is obsessed with its male-ness.

Native Americans in our own hemisphere didn’t have all the hangups with femininity that our own culture does. I think that’s what has driven most of the fear of gay men.

Well, what am I going to do for Lent? Lent is really a call to conversion. It’s a time for awakening. What will be awakened this year. Spending time at Mt. Saviour Monastery awakened within me a desire to spend more time discovering who I really am.

I read “When the Heart Waits” by Sue Monk Kidd while I was at Mt. Saviour. I found it in their bookstore. I found it inspiring and thoughtful and just what I needed to read. The author got me to thinking about who I really am. There were lots of insights from the book but one of the most poignant for me was that time spent waiting is not a waist. “Be still and know..”–Psalm 46, continues to ruminate in me as it has for a number of years. Nearly everywhere in our culture and in my life I rebel from stillness and yet deep within me is a call to stillness. It’s that stillness that drove me to Mt. Saviour. It’s that stillness that drives me to Mt. Irenaeus. It’s that stillness that calls me to a Secular Franciscan life. Sue Monk Kidd spoke a lot about the Incarnation and how important that is to her spirituality. I needed to hear what she had to say. I needed to hear that deep within me is a divine spark. It’s always been there. Afterall, what caused my heart to begin beating in my mother’s womb. What has kept my heart beating all these years?

Luke 17:21 states very boldly, “The kingdom of God is within you.” I needed a book and some days in a monastery to be reminded of the truth and to absorb it into my soul. I don’t need anything else. The Kingdom of God is already within me.

Dona Nobis Pacem.

It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been away enjoying the peace and solitude of Mt. Saviour Monastery near Elmira, New York. There are no words to describe what I’ve experienced in these past few days except to say incredible peace and beauty. The daily routine which was hardly routine for me was very settling and therapeutic. I didn’t want to leave today, but I had to. I will return again. Mt. Saviour grew on me.

When I first arrived I wasn’t sure I had made the right choice of a place for my retreat. My reaction was somewhat like the action of similar poles of a magnet. At first something within me repelled but then as I sat reading in my cell I could hear the music within me from the chants of the psalms. “O God to my assistance..”, over and over from Vigils, Lauds, Mass, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline were like waves lapping on a sea shore. The rhythmic repetition of the psalms prayed together created a healing presence that really cannot be described. It can really only be experienced.

More to follow. Peace.

At Mass today Fr. Bob’s homily was in part about how we are unwilling to accept hardship in our life and how we rebel at what we think has been God’s judgement of us. Bad things do happen to good people. Six million righteous Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Millions of blacks were enslaved around the world. Millions more native peoples have been murdered and massacred. Native Americans on our own continent were driven from their ancestral homes and murdered simply because they stood in the way of conquest. Every day good people die from cancer, heart disease, AIDs. It seems as though the love of God is just a cruel joke.

Society would have us believe that winning is everything and that perfection is not only attainable but proof of God’s favor. In the Gospel today is the story of the crippled man who was lowered through the roof to be healed by Jesus. In those days many believed that physical infirmity was the result of sin of the victim or of the victims parents. There are still folks today who ascribe sinfulness to such conditions as AIDS.

Jesus, the Paschal lamb was slaughtered. He was wounded for our transgressions. In Isaiah 53, “He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.”

By his wounds we were healed. By our wounds we are healed. Unless we too are wounded like Christ we can’t be healed. If you’ve suffered child abuse, sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, cancer, or any of a myriad of conditions then you too are joined with Christ in his suffering and in His redemption. We can’t help others until and unless we’ve been wounded. That which appears to make us most vulnerable or despised is that which binds us most firmly to Christ. It is our infirmity that makes us most useful not our strength.

“‘ My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”

Thanks be to God for my infirmities. May the Lord give you peace.